Let's crash the Reese/Felicity lovefest for a second — 2005's most daring actress was Maria Bello in A History of Violence. As a woman who discovered that her hot, happy marriage was not what it seemed, Bello appeared casually and completely nude, swerved through betrayal, terror and resignation, and tore into two raw, complicated sex scenes (one a tender roleplay with Viggo Mortensen, the other an ambiguous assault with a stunningly fraught climax). Possessor of the most expressive mouth-wrinkle since Klute-era Jane Fonda, Bello has provided consistently excellent support in films from Permanent Midnight to The Cooler; with History, she claims a spot on the top tier of actresses, an adventurer in a crowd of portrait-painters. — Michael Martin
James Jean's illustrations showed up in every single magazine we read this year, and we're far from sick of him. In fact, we're thoroughly enchanted. Look at his illustration for a Sigur Ros interview; if you've never heard the band, you now know exactly what they sound like. Or check out this beautifully bizarre series of paintings he did for Men's Health (yes, Men's Health). Even his Target ad elicits a sigh of wonder. — GW
Call it the spiritual heir to The Office, The Odd Couple as rewritten by Neil LaBute, or The League of Beleaguered Gentlemen. Peep Show concerns two lovably nasty roommates (the British comedy team of David Mitchell and Robert Webb). Slackerish Jeremy wants to be a pop star; pathetic Mark is a corporate drone. Together, they're assailed by errant girlfriends, misshapen testicles, male insecurity, big dreams and fundamental loserdom. The show's gimmick (you can hear the duo's thoughts and occasionally see things from their perspective) isn't as notable as the absurdly obscene slow burn of its situations, which are straight out of the Curb Your Enthusiasm vault of classic comedy. Unfortunately, if you blinked, you missed it: the show was pulled from BBC America after a brief run last year, just before its third season aired in the UK. Those who buy the DVD of season one (and seek out the rest on BitTorrent) will be richly rewarded. — MM
Nakadate's successful show at James Danziger last May cemented her status as an art-world darling, but for once, the distinction is well-deserved. Her first installation, "I Wanna be Your Midlife Crisis", played with men who tried to pick Nakadate up on the street by involving them in staged video tableaus. Her Danziger show was a variation on the theme — scenes involved her and the men crawling on the floor pretending to be cats and listening to each other's hearts with stethoscopes. In "Love Hotel", Nakadate explores Japanese love hotels, posing explicitly for the camera. She is entirely unafraid to push buttons, and she seems to be enjoying herself completely while staging her own abductions and stripping for the camera — not the obvious trajectory of a Yale MFA, but one that is awfully exciting to witness. — Rachel Hulin
Here's what Washington State Senator Maria Cantwell has been up to in the past month: She legislated the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act to give mail-order brides legal recourse against abuse. She convinced an enormous cargo company to convert their entire fleet to biodiesel. She led Democratic efforts to prevent drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And she fought to extend debate on the Patriot Act, saying, "The federal government has a responsibility to protect our nation from those who may bring terror into our homes. It also has a responsibility to respect our rights and honor our privacy. These principles are not mutually exclusive: we can and must achieve both." Kind of makes you wish we had a President like that, doesn't it? — GW
In college, I'd ride the subway in Washington, D.C. and be puzzled by ads encouraging gay black men not to be on "the down low." That was ten years ago, and while the closet remains filled with African-Americans, the fact that there's now a TV show entirely about gay black men is extraordinary. Patrik-Ian Polk, the writer and director of Noah's Arc on the gay and lesbian network Logo, has created a shockingly realistic show. Keith Boykin notes that it's the first time black men have ever been shown having sex together anywhere on television, and the sex itself is startling real and brazenly unedited. With conservative Baptist churches, a largely bigoted hip-hop scene and HIV ravaging the African-American community (both gay and straight), gay black men have one of the steepest hills to climb. A show like Noah's Arc, be it on a gay and lesbian channel or not, is a courageous step forward. — WD
When she spoke last year at West Point — where her memoir of life in Iran, Persepolis, was required reading — author Marjane Satrapi said, "Twenty-five years ago, they were saying, 'Read the Koran, God is on our side,' and 'You are going to fight the big Satan.' And the big Satan, they were you . . . And twenty-five years after, I hear the American government saying, 'God is on our side,' 'Read the Bible' and 'We are going to fight the "axis of evil.' [It] is the same words. But when it comes from an Iranian mullah, [it] is normal. An Iranian mullah is supposed to be a fanatic. It's not normal when it comes from the biggest secular democracy in the whole world." At West Point! Satrapi shows no fear. And she has been blessedly honest about women's rights, sex and love in the Middle East. Read Nerve's bawdy interview with her here. — AC
In January 2005, Lawrence Summers, the president of Harvard, suggested at a research conference that the male brain might be better attuned to math and science. Mayhem ensued. Students rallied, petitions circulated. An MIT professor said that had she not immediately run from the room following his comments, she "would have either blacked out or thrown up." We don't agree with Mr. Summers, and we don't disagree with him either. Why? Because his hypothesis hasn't been adequately studied, as he rather innocently suggested it should be. We think the president of Harvard has a right to spark such discussion, and whether Summers ignited controversy intentionally or naively, we're behind him either way. — WD
There's no truer homage than masturbation, no more perfect metaphor for Ariel Pink's obsessive bedroom recordings. In the video for "I wait for Kate," Pink spends a romantic evening at home — by himself. While the diminutive, shaggy Pink fidgets in musical estrus beside a roaring fire, a second cross-dressing Pink transforms himself into one of his idols, singer Kate Bush.
That romantic evening has lasted for years. For the better part of a decade, the pop scholar has produced dozens of eight-track albums that intentionally emulate the demos of his typically obscure heroes: The Silver Apples, Can and the father of home recording, R. Stevie Moore. The name of Pink's latest album, Worn Copy, says it all: music whose thrill is intentionally archaeological, like finding a lost B-side of your favorite late-'70s band at a garage sale. Pink admits that the shabby production isn't so much about closing the distance between artist and listener (in contrast to most lo-fi artists), but widening it.
Nevertheless, when New York psych-folk darlings Animal Collective discovered Pink two years ago, they signed him and forced him on an eight-month tour of North America. Nerve recently caught up with Pink in Los Angeles, where he discoursed on his popularity in Estonia and the musical virtues of porn. Click here to read the interview.